Our New Online Fun

Our most recent little family pass time is looking up flash mobs online. They just lift your spirit and look so FUN!

Here's the one that started it all for us, and a few more we found and had to share.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

Sound of Music | Central Station Antwerp

Food Court Musical

Hammer Time Mob Dance

(Watch for the Grandpa in this one)

Random MC Hammer "Can't Touch This" Street Dance

(This is the same group as above, but watch for the swim goggle guy.)

On A Fair Day In May

May is the month of the emerald birthstone, May Day, Cinco de Mayo, lily of the valley, and the birthday of our own little Taurus the Bull, Yippie-Skippie!

This year she turned 9. NINE!


Some of you may remember how Yippie-Skippie came into this world. Early, but healthy and ready to help her family with her love, warmth and humor. She was a great baby, and an eager playmate to her sisters. She talked late, and that gave her family the opportunity to learn some sign language, and she blossomed with the increase communication abilities.


All that time in her own head before she could communicate well allowed her to develop one of her greatest gifts: her great imagination and observation skills. Yippie-Skippie sees things differently than most people. Her observations are unique, and she marches to this uniqueness enthusiastically. Although self conscious in a group, those who know her well are delighted to have her as a friend.


NINE! Wow. But watching her turn into such a great gal helps take the sting off the turning of the years. We are blessd to have her in our family!


(This pic is over a year old, but it's one of my favorites. I couldn't resist.)

Parody of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody AKA Mom's Rhapsody

Wait, wait, here's another but that's it, I promise!...

-for now

COTM - Dad Life

As if the Swagger Wagon wasn't funny enough... GrandMary sent us this one.

Sit on down, 'cause this is funny!

(And sometime later I'll catch up on the move)

Happy 4th! I love this country!

SWAGGER WAGON

You may have seen this already, but we can't stop laughing! The other segments are pretty good too. I love to laugh at myself, and some of these are ridiculously painful.

I do wonder though. Where is the SUV driving-military family-mormon-4 kid-outdoorsy-less materialistic family rap at? ...could be funny...


*Be it known: We buy American, and drive a Ford SUV. cool beans?

How To Buy A House The Hard Way.

1. Good. Take enough leave so that the 2 days of travel both coming and going include plenty of time to visit family along the way.

Bad. The Air Force giveth and the Air Force taketh away said leave and we have to streamline the trip and skip seeing some dear ones.

2. Saturday

Good. Leave town with current residence fully staged and ready to show to potential buyers in our absence.

Bad. Complete the staging and CLEANING so late in the evening, that we depart town at 8pm with a bag of fast food tacos and only get 4 hrs into the 16 hr trip before we stop for the night. Leaving a very long second travel day.

3. Sunday

Bad. Have church in the car, listening to old conferences and talk tapes. -it's just not the same with children in the back clamoring for snacks. We hate traveling on Sundays!

Good. Arrive at Grams, rest, sleep.

4. Monday

Good. Hang out with GrandMary, finalize the childcare arrangements.

Good. Grown-ups depart for final leg of trip to home buying destination city.

Good. Grown-ups arrive, settle in, have dinner with friends of friends.

5. Tuesday

Good. Meet fantastic realtor. Look at a million houses. 9:30am - 6pm

Bad. Most of the houses are very nice but new and boring. :)

6. Wednesday

Good. Look at a million more houses. 9:30am - 6pm

Bad. Have a hard time narrowing them down to one to bid on.

Location? Re-sale? Lot? Layout? Price?

7. Thursday

Good. Take a re-look at a few, decide and make an offer! Mission accomplished! Back to Grams.

Bad. On the drive back, we are notified that they rejected our offer and countered. We dont like their counter, and counter back.

8. Friday

Bad. While preparing to pack and hit the road, with hopes of adding back some of the family we skipped on our way up, we get the call that they didn't like our counter counter offer. And we don't like theirs either. What? Now what? We don't have a Plan B. (novices) What now?

Bad. Skip seeing the family we were hoping to see. Postpone leaving for home, (Which means traveling on another Sunday!) and go back up to see more houses!

Good. Gram was willing and able to keep the girls again for us.

Good. The realtor was able to move her schedule around show us a couple new ones, and re-look at an old one. We have two now that we like rather equally, and make a bid on one. (We have a Plan B house this time in case the first one falls through. We're happy. We feel like we're learning something.)

Good. Drive back to Grams. Again.

9. Saturday

Good. Depart for home at a reasonable hour.

Bad. Late in the afternoon, in the middle of a rather sparsely populated state, with intermittent cell phone coverage, we finally hear from our realtor. The house we made an offer on, is being handled by an executor and may take a while to reach and reply to our offer. The problem? -Plan B house is having an open house tomorrow and is highly likely to sell (price reduction) before we hear back on Plan A house. We could loose both. Ack!

Good. We make a decision to rescind the offer on Plan A house, (it hadn't even been presented to the executor yet) and make an offer on Plan B house.

Bad. PAPERWORK. We arrive at the hotel for the night with cranky hungry kids, and now we have to do a ton of paperwork to put in the new offer. -Print e-mail attachments, sign forms, fax them back. Now.

Good. We love having a laptop. Spoiled, I know. But Handy!

Bad. We get the forms ready and take them to the front desk of this tiny western non-town and the 17yr old behind the counter tells us that the fax machine is pretty unreliable. (I think she just didn't know how to work it.)

Worse. After trying to get the fax to go through for a good 15-20 min, we trade off childcare, and Dad goes across the street to a drugstore. No fax. Western Union? And I quote, "We're sorry sir, we closed 5 min ago." It is now 8:05 pm.

Good. I call the other hotel in town, explain the situation and ask if they might fax the forms for me. Hooray! Someone with an ounce of Southern Hospitality. Faxed offer received by realtor 8:17pm.

Better. The entire family is asleep by 8:45

Best. Realtor calls at 10pm to inform us that "our offer is accepted as written." We give a weak shout, and fall back into our pillows.

10. Sunday

Get home. Wonder about the drama of it all.

That's just he home buying portion of the adventure. We did have a great time seeing the family that we could. And the Girls had a GREAT time with all the family they got to visit.

Life is an adventure, and we love to tell stories, so it goes together pretty well I guess.

Jell-0 and other "Mormon" Wierdness

This was sent to me in my In-box today from a dear friend who sends entirely too many forwards. But after having had a Mormon vs.Utah culture conversation with a friend earlier today, the coincidence was too much for me. I had to share.

Jell-O Love: A Guide to Mormon Cuisine

Question of the Day

Points for those multiculturalists who know what a bento is without looking it up.
Anybody? How 'bout the Foodies?

Answer
You learn something new everyday.

(Upcoming post: How to Buy a House the Hard Way)

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We've been busier than usual around here recently. -Frankly I didn't know that was possible. Can you guess some of what we've been doing with our time?

Milestones

Chickadee went on a Youth Temple trip for the first time last weekend.

Big Red made it to Black Belt!

It's a Family Tradition

The yearly spring fun run!

Big Red ran a 5K in 34:34! Which is only about 4 min behind her mom!

Little Red ran her mile in 9:30! She had so much fun, and this year Dad was able to run with us.

Two of the girls were unable or disinclined to participate this year,

but the two that did really enjoyed themselves!

Must Read!

This is an incredible story of the ongoing commitment of one individual and the difference that can be made when you seek to love and understand before you judge or seek to change. It is a history book, a love story, geography lesson, and a political and philosophical discussion. It's about educating girls. Girls that become Mothers that educate generations.

Three Cups of Tea

This is the continuing story. So far it is as good as the first. Mr. Mortensen should receive the Nobel Peace prize. I hope our kids and grandkids read about this dedicated accidental philanthropist.

Stones into Schools

New Year!

We had some fabulous visitors for the New Year.  My brother and my grandmother came to visit!  While Chickadee was at her first youth activity, a New Years Eve party, Uncle dipped chocolate pretzles with the other girls.  He is quite the culinary artist, and we enjoyed his dinners and treats. 

New Years Day we went to White Sands! See my little Grandma!  

We are so glad she came to see us!  

On their visit we also went roller skating, antique shopping, and out to the rifle range.

What a great way to start the year.  We love you!

Happy Valentines Day!

Gradeschool Essentials

Chickadee was making a game for a class assignment.  Big Red and I were giving her suggestions.  I suggested that one of the cards could say, "Give a high five to the person sitting next to you."

Big Red looked at me wide eyed.  "Mom, she'll be playing this game in school."  

I gave her a questioning look, unable to find the horror in a high five.

"With her classmates!" she urged.

 -blank stare- 

"BOYS!" 

I finally got it.  

Laughing, I noted that Chicadee has been dancing with B-O-Y-S's for a month now in gym class. "And the cooties havn't killed her yet..." 

Chicadee looks up with a wry smile and says,  "Hand santizer."

      

Gearing Up For Christmas

After the victorious return of our Hero,
and after the canyon vacation,
we started getting ready for Christmas.

We did the usual things;

We had family visit, and took a family picture.

Chickadee had a Birthday!

We tormented the kids with long drives and shopping excursions. :)


We set up a a Christmas tree.



And took Gram to the shooting range.


Guess what she got for Christmas?

Winter!!!

So, Family was coming down from MO (where they have winter) to visit us here in NM (where they don't).  "What should we pack?" they ask.  Laughing, on a 58 degree November day, we say, "Oh, you'll be fine with a mid-weight jacket and a hat and gloves.  No need for a heavy coat."  As they begin their two day journey toward the balmy southland, we get this: 

Wow, a crazy amount of snow!  Don't worry, it will melt by noon.  WRONG!  It stayed on the ground an entire week, we even had a second storm and two snow days in one week!  The only snow days in the last 15 years.  Don't worry though, we're settled back into our denial of the existence of winter, with our mid-weight jackets.  High of 56 today.  :)